Human activities and resource use are undeniably altering Earth’s climate, most prominently through emissions of greenhouse gases and particulates, and through alteration of the land surface. Climate change, in turn, is affecting other Earth processes, making the critical 21st-century challenges of providing food, water, and energy to a growing human population much more difficult.

Stanford Earth faculty are renowned for their research and role in the public dialogue about climate change.  We work across disciplines—and at the interface of atmosphere, ocean, land, and ice systems—to characterize climate changes as well as potential responses and outcomes that matter to people.

With key faculty hires in, for example, risk analysis and the science of ice, we will be able to develop more powerful tools with which to identify appropriate responses that enable sustainable, resilient pathways for economic growth and human development with fewer unintended negative consequences.